text for catalog: StandOrte, Locations, Cologne 2010
 
Dr. Frank Schmidt
 
StandPoints
 
Where does a work of art come into being? For once the aspect of aesthetical reception, that images arouse in the beholder‘s head depending on his sociological, cultural and individual background, has to be discarded. Instead, we will have a closer look at the various sites of art production. For her latest art series, Marina Herrmann visits not only metropoles like New York, Tokyo, Shanghai or Dubai but also the — perhaps easily overlooked — city of Frankfurt. There she concentrates on one of the most spectacular tasks for architects and urban planners; skyscrapers, most likely housing banks. In comparison with pictures taken by photographers of architecture we are confronted with sometimes blurred views, cutouts, reflections or details of the architecture. The artist seems to be more interested in the structures of skyscrapers in general than in specific attributes of a certain building. And still, the pictures convey the typical idiosyncrasies of each country. They give an impression of the interactive bond of a building, a city and cultural and social relations. Because the project is open and always in progress, other locations can also be focussed on by further journeys. Marina Herrmann is not simply content with a typological compilation of photographed impressions. In a further step, she adapts the buildings, when she thematizes the correlations between image, impact and identity.
 
The second and even more important site for the art production is the studio. Here the photographic image is revised and embedded in a pictorial setting. By means of a glazing overpaint, the photographies are transformed into paintings themselves. The diversified reality of architecture enters into a dialogue with the pictorial interpretations of the artist. The different levels of relevance and impact are visually manifested in the multi–parted principle of the artworks’ design. Individual deep display cases — each of them with a different motif — form all together kind of a polyptych. Inspired by the revised photographic reference Marina Herrmann finds colours and ornamental shapes, which she puts into its relation. The extra–pictorial reality has formed its counterpart, which refers to this but also claims an autonomous point of view. The ornaments and abstract coloured areas seem to be as realistic or artificial as the photographies. While the latter claims a reference to the original building the former are definite in an self–referring meaning. This emphasizes the actual subdivision of the picture in particular compartments. One part of the polyptych can not reconstruct the others. Only through compounding all parts can the picture be brought together.
 
Consequently Marina Herrmann creates an deceptive visual reality, which on the other hand, is directed to the origin of urban architecture. Therefore, single high–rise buildings always correlate with other buildings, the district and — last but not least — with the whole city. The ambivalence between insulated architecture on one side and necessary neighborhood and integration on the other becomes particularly clear within the group of narrow, upright square formats of high–rise buildings. While the format refers to the significant structural shape, the opaque glassy façade blocks any view of the inside of the building. Redirected to themselves the viewers have to assure themselves about their own position. But if they interpret skyscrapers, so–called “signature architecture”, as symbols of money and power, they will fail to see one important and signifying aspect of the oeuvre: The analysis of the aesthetic qualities of the architecture as well as Marina Herrmann‘s special fine feeling for textures, for colour and picturesque moments.
 
The pictures reflect both complexity of modern urbanity as well as — in the choice of means and methods — the painterly discourse. The locations of the motif and its positioning within the oeuvre are entering an inspiring and mutually stimulating dialogue. The question about the StandPoint is continually put forward.